/issue/2016.12

Vietnam is taking the Asian region by storm. The number of Internet users has skyrocketed from 15 million people in 2006 (17% penetration) to 49 million people in 2016 (52% penetration) and is projected to reach around 82 million in 2020.
 

Vietnam's E-Commerce market reached US$4.07 billion by the end of 2015. It accounted for 0.6% of the total retail sales in 2015 and is expected to account for 4.7% of it in 2025. The 3 most commonly purchased items are fashion, mobile/IT and kitchen/home appliances. Mobile commerce is also extremely strong.

According to Lazada, the e-commerce giant of Southeast Asia, approximately 60% of its sales in Vietnam come from mobile sales. It expects these numbers to grow substantially in the coming years. Vietnamese find shopping using their mobile phones to be more convenient and effective. There are more than 20 million smartphone users in the country this is almost 24% of Vietnam's population.

The Vietnamese are a very social bunch. With a constant 25% increase year on year, there are currently 35 million active social media users accounting for 37% of the population by 2015. This figure includes the 29 million users who are active mobile social media users. Facebook leads the way with a 29% market share followed closely by Zalo, the local social media platform that accounts for 25% of the total market share. The latest numbers show Zalo has 45 million users, which accounts for half the Vietnamese population.

Vietnam has recently made it to .Asia's top 10 economies and in 2016, it is our 7th largest market having registered close to 2200 names so far. DotAsia will be working closely with local partners to further expand the value of .Asia to small businesses in the region. Vietnam is a digital space we cannot afford to miss.

Some lamented the change of venue from San Juan to Hyderabad, but this vibrant South Indian city of Hyderabad was the perfect venue for the very first iteration of the longer ICANN meeting structure. Fondly referred to as Cyberabad by locals (it's even on the police cars!), the DotAsia team spent 7 days (2-9 November) with the ICANN community enjoying the heat, biryanis, and getting back to business as usual in the ICANN policy space in the most attended ICANN meeting to-date with over 3000 participants!

The IANA Transition was celebrated with fanfare as the NTIA contract lapsed on 30 September, and the stewardship of the IANA functions finally rests with the global multistakeholder community. Implementation of the transition proposal is well underway. Accountability remains a hot issue as the Cross-community Working Group (CCWG) workstream 2 forges full steam ahead. All hands are on deck on the 4 different work tracks of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group. And the proposed charter from the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross-Community Working Group was met with a great deal of interest.

Within the APAC community, we welcome the next chair of APRALO – Satish Babu, and congratulate Guo Feng who has been elected as Vice-Chair of the Governmental Advisory Committee. The DotAsia team continues its contribution in the CJK work towards a coordinated consensus on IDN variants, and also in moving along the crucial work in the Universal Acceptance Steering Group. The APAC space in-person meeting, moderated by Edmon Chung - CEO, DotAsia, was also at a record high of over 80 participants.

Hyderabad, you were good to us, Copenhagen, you have large shoes to fill! Catch the DotAsia team next at ICANN 58 Copenhagen!

2017 - We are excited to share that the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) 2017 will be hosted by Chulalongkorn University & National Broadcasting Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) of Thailand in Bangkok. The conference is scheduled to be held in late July. The open call for workshop proposals will soon be released in January 2017.

2018 - Now it is your chance to host APrIGF in 2018. The 2018 requests for proposals for the local host are open now until 6 February 2017. Welcome the 300+ multi-stakeholders from around the Asia Pacific region to your city now!

IGF Guadalajara, Mexico – Multi-stakeholderism and inclusiveness are some of the most important principles that many of the national & regional IGF initiatives shared at the global IGF. We are delighted to have over 50 participants from the Asia Pacific region and beyond joining us at our Community Meet-up session in Mexico. There was a lively discussion on how to better engage with the private sector and governments as well as enhancing Asia Pacific participation in the global Internet governance discourse.

At ICANN57 Hyderabad, India (3 - 9 November), NetMission partnered with the ICANN APAC Hub to co-organize the Outreach for Local Academia program for around 30 students from Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. The NetMission Ambassadors moderated a model ICANN meeting to help local students better understand the discussion format and stakeholder groups in ICANN so they can actively participate in ICANN sessions.

The United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held in Guadalajara, Mexico just ended on 9 December. Throughout the week-long forum, NetMission Ambassadors hosted workshops and participated as panelists to share their experiences on youth engagement work in the AP region highlighting the YouthIGF organized for the past 7 years as part of a core element of APrIGF.

This year, with support from Microsoft Hong Kong Limited, NetMission initiated HKYIGF as a local YIGF for high school students in Hong Kong. 3 representatives from HKYIGF were selected to participate in this IGF together with the team, to promote the initiative as well as the toolkit created by the NetMission Ambassadors [www.netmission.asia/training-materials/]. The IGF community was enthused to involve youth in the discussion and everyone is looking forward to hearing more youth voices in Internet Governance!

2016 marks a milestone for Go.Asia. Not only did we celebrate our 5th anniversary with the flagship campaign Food Revolution Asia with Jamie Oliver's Food Foundation, we also extended our influence by collaborating with ambassadors across Asia in Taiwan and China via the digital campaign, "FRD Cooking Challenge". The cooking challenge not only brought general awareness and donations towards our goal.

This year, our original school program "Think.Cook.Save. Health & Food Education" received a record high participation and reached over 50 schools and 10,000 school kids in Hong Kong. Every small bit adds up to a lot, we are honored that over 300 charity projects and 200 charities have been supported via our Go.Asia platform. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincerest gratitude to our sponsors and partners: Gift4Kids, Credit Suisse, Food Revolution Foundation, Jamie's Italian, batatagreens, Health Concept, Call4Van, Vegetables Marketing Organization, AuLaw Organic Farm and many more.

In 2017, we aim to provide a bridge solution for donors and charities by launching a crowd funding platform as our key campaign for the 10th anniversary celebration of DotAsia Organisation. We will be announcing this very soon - stay tuned!!

I can't believe it has almost been a year since I was appointed as the Tx2 Ambassador. I hope you caught .Asia's Ajitora inspired promotion for domain registration to celebrate my ambassadorship!

It has been such a blast hanging out with the .Asia team to meet new friends around the world. You must have seen me at APRICOT in Auckland, ICANN in Marrakech, Asian Film Awards in Macau, Global Tiger Forum in Delhi, DOMAINfest@IoN.Asia in Hong Kong, Shirase in Tokyo, Exabtyes eCommerce Conference in Kuala Lumpur, APrIGF in Taipei, ICANN in Hyderbad, WHD in Beijing, IGF in Guadalajara … well, those were just a few of the places I zipped to.

During my journey this year with .Asia, my favorite part was spending time with thousands of Hong Kong children and youth in schools and community centers. Not only did they adore my handsome stripes; they are passionate about tigers and how sustainable development connects us all.

I hope your 2016 was as fulfilling as mine and may 2017 bring lots of fun, joy, love and success ahead!

RRAO~ Asia!
Aji